Sakura Wars Fan Fiction / Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ Sakura Taisen:Zero One ❯ Whatever comes ( Chapter 12 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The people in the hall watched as Max slowly got up, walked across the hall and approached Sumire.

“That was a really good battle we got there,” said the freckle-face in a gentler tone, “I guess no condition will be met, so it's a win-win situation. You're very good, Sumire.” Holding out his hand, he said, “Put `em there!”

The violet-haired lady stared at the hand, still shocked from what just happened. But when she realized what Max wanted to do at that moment….all were caught unawares when they saw her slap the freckle-faced boy with such force that he fell to the ground.

“MAX!!” Everyone ran to help the fallen boy.

Sakura helped Max sit up and facing Sumire, said, “How could you? What has he done?!”

With an enraged look in her eyes, Sumire breathed, “If there's one thing that I hate the most, it's outright sarcasm!”

“Sarcasm??!” Cried Kanna, “Even if you don't deserve it, he's just trying to be nice!”

“Nice? Oh stop being so naïve!!” hissed the violet-haired woman, “he knows that he can't win, so he plays out the sweetsy kid just to save face. But I know that deep inside, he's filled with contempt from the fact that he can't be in my level!”

“In your level?? Look who's talking!” said Takao, “You have no idea of how low you have stooped this time!”

“Yeah!” said someone from the watching crowd, “How can your heart be so rotten?!” and everyone yammered the same, but were silenced when they saw that the Captain was walking into the hall.

“Captain!” said Maria, “Let me explain….”

“It's OK,” said Beckett, “I heard everything.”

Max stood up and faced her. “Captain,” he said in a broken voice, “I'm…..so sorry….” Sakura was afraid that he might cry at any minute then.

The captain slowly put her head on his blond crown, and said, “It's OK. You did well.”

Letting out a surprised look,then slowly smiling, Max said, “….thank you!”

“What?!” cried Sumire, “Captain, what's the meaning of this!? Are you defending that….”

Beckett silenced her with a slap.

“Whoa,” muttered Dizzi in a minimized volume, “they're having a slap marathon, that much I know.”

“I expected a lot more from a daughter of the great Kanzaki zaibatsu,” said Beckett in a hard voice, “So I couldn't believe how vulgar your way of thinking had become. Has the time-freeze made you lose your decency and respect?! I know that you don't like the boys, but never did it cross my mind that your dislike would actually go THIS far! Now, how are you going to justify yourself when you explain things to the Major?” A definitive silence in the hall followed.

Finally, Sumire said, “I understand.” She threw away the stick that was her naginata, turned and walked away.

“Sumire-kun!” cried Beckett, “This will be the last time that you will turn your back on me!”

“Indeed it will, because I have no intention of reporting. I'm leaving.”

“Leaving?!” “But to where?”

“I'll think of it later. What's important is that I'd get out of this place that I never want to be part of. If this theater is going to be taken over by such despicable standards by those urchins, count me out by the moment the Kagekidan falls apart.”

“Sumire-kun!!” cried Beckett.

But she was gone.

The people in the hall mumbled among themselves with what they heard. “Is it true that she's leaving?” “Whoa, that's terrible,” Nah serves her right. She's such a pain in the ass.”

“Everybody,” said Sakura, “I don't think it's a good idea to say that.”

“STOP IT!”

Everybody was silenced when they heard Max shout.

“Max?!” “But why?”

“After all that she's done to you, how you're still defending her?!” Takao asked incredulously.

“It's OUR fault. She said those things because we pushed her to. And…..I feel sorry for her. When I learned about Team Hana's bio data, I found out that Sumire was particularly close to her father and respects him so much. I know that the cold sleep has Irreversibly taken you away from whomever you left in your period and all of you have some difficulty coping, but I can feel that Sumire is suffering the most. I can feel it whenever she's saying and doing those mean things to the people around her. But it's sad; because in the end, she will be the one to suffer from the consequences of her actions, alone……..”

“Max,…”” Sakura said softly, as she laid a hand on his shoulder.

The captain laid a hand on his head once again and said, “I understand how you feel,” but was cut short when Max looked up, and with another “Mokona face” said, “But at least she said we were good-looking!”

Everyone fell flat on the floor and berated Max for ruining his good drama moment.

“But it's an improvement! She acknowledged that we're good looking!” then Max straightened up and said, “But really, we are one team. If any of us goes away, it will spell disasters for the Force, right? Fighting can only destroy us.”

“Don't take it upon yourself, Max.”

“Takao?”

Now I get what you mean. I have completely forgotten how we got through everything in the Beybattles we faced and got us as far as here. It's time that our friendship had extended beyond our team,” saying this, he turned to the captain and said, “Captain, I want to talk to the Major. I want to ask him not to send Sumire away, and that we'll take responsibility.” And the two teams chorused in agreement.

Beckett looked at them, first with puzzlement, and then slowly, she smiled. I think I can see what the Major is trying to tell me. She said. “All right then.”

“Captain?!” “Thank you!”

The Major's office was jam packed with spectators, but was nearly dead-silent when the two main teams told the Major what happened that morning, along with their plea of not sending Sumire away. After each of them gave their own say on why it should be so, the Major mulled over everything that they said for a long time. Finally, he said,

“I understand.”

The people before him looked hopeful and said, “So you're not sending her away?”

“Not quite.”

“What?!” Everyone suddenly looked anxious.

“Well,” said the Major, “Whether she'll stay or not is not for us to decide.”

“What do you mean?”

“Technically, what she did will not merit an expulsion. A suspension, maybe, but she'll not be sent away, that's for sure. But it is still up to her to whether accept what is happening around her, or sulk in the past.”

“So you mean to say that we should give her more space or something?”

“Something like that.” The Major looked intently at all of them and said, “What I mean to say is, we should give her more breathing space. From that point on, she can decide whether she'll stay, or leave.'

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At the CGS Heavy Works, the final touches were given to the four shiny new Kobu units, as the computer analyzers, and engineers were double-checking them to see whether they missed something or not. Seeing that everything was taken care of, they finished the new units as quickly as they can, and carefully manipulated the cranes as not to damage the units, placing them in the massive cargo caboose of the GZ-Goraigo, the conveyor train of the Force. As soon as they were all loaded, the train departed with a loud, ominous roar, as it sped towards the main base, the Broadcast Studio.

“Kotetsu Hana sure is a break for us huh?” Said one of the train's operators. A tall, well-built fellow with a black mullet, his arms are long enough to reach the switches on the higher parts of the control window. “There's really a lot of thrill that goes with carrying a high-priority cargo than mere pieces of junk, eh, Escosas-kun?”

“I wouldn't say that,” said Escosas, a lanky young man with reddish hair and tanned skin, as he intently kept his hands on the steering knobs. “A delivery job is a job, period. We have to deliver the goods whether they're gold bars or pieces of excrement.”

“Ah, you're still as serious as ever. You even keep your eyes on the tracks too much. Hey, this is a subway, not a multi-lane traffic lane! And you don't have to watch out for red lights!”

“And you're still as laidback as ever, Steinbach,” retorted Escosas, “You should stop worrying about me and worry about your younger brother instead. I heard he was making a lot of trouble in the Power Section….”

“Jed is a grown man. He can take care of himself. You're the one who should worry. Your younger sister's quite a fussy brat. You should remind her that this is a military base, not a playground in which she can run around freely.”

“You're right” said the red-haired man as he sighed. “Time and again, I always have to remind Lilin to behave herself. After all, there's nowhere else we can go to.” The two men fell silent as the train sped towards the base.

***************************************************

Meanwhile, the Captain was accompanying the visiting guests inside the studios. Not only was it a visitation trip, as the chairman explained that he had some important documents to deliver to the Major, which contains the BBA's own findings to the incidents involving the increase of Wakiji activity. “It seems that whatever your Force is going through is directly related to the increase of people with sizeable levels of spiritual power, like the boys are. What bothers me is that a good number of them are upper class Beybladers, like the boys are!”

“And whoever our enemy is, they must be after those people,” said Beckett, “judging from the Wakiji's assault on the boys about six months ago. They're lucky that they can be protected here, but….the others….”

“Your job must be really tough, Ma'm,” said Hiromi, who was also carrying her share of documents.

“Indeed it is. Aside from maintaining the whole city of Tokyo, we have to keep our main assault team from repelling each other. They are pretty strong personalities as we can see.'

“You mean those girls?” asked the Chairman. “I can see the problem. Even with the installations of medians, like you say Takao and the rest are, they must really have a hard time reconciling each personality. It's as if each of those girls have her own world!”

“Indeed it is,” said Beckett as she punched in her access card through various entrance points in the next halls, “And as of now, one of them is currently our problem. “Up to now, I still can't believe that a high born lady such as Sumire could actually harbor such vulgar thoughts against the boys!”

“Why am I not surprised?” said Hiromi, “She's a human eater. So what did she do this time?”

And the Captain told them of what happened that morning.

The Chairman and Hiromi were nonetheless appalled with what was said to them. “That Sumire Kanzaki! She has really gone too far!” cried Hiromi. “The nerve of her to say such a disgusting thing about the boys!”

“But what's more surprising is that the boys not only forgave her, but even pleaded for her not to be sent away.” Chairman Daitenji said with a raised eyebrow. “The only possible explanation for that would seem that somehow, the boys have actually developed a certain liking of those girls.”

“Now that's weird,” said Hiromi, “Takao usually has low opinions of girls, especially me.”

“I think you're underestimating them a little,” said Beckett, “In my opinion, the boys were acting like people twice their ages. Just think: after a heated argument like that, what immature person would ever think of taking responsibility?”

“Takao? Mature? No way!” said Hiromi.

“I don't think so,” said the Chairman, “there are times that people change without warning.” Turning to the Captain, he said, “You certainly have a lot of trust in them, Ms. Beckett.”

“Not really. I had a huge doubt about their emotional readiness for our kind of environment when they first came here, but when I saw what happened this morning, I became a believer.”

In the Major's room, the Chairman presented the documents and discussed its contents. Hiromi was sitting on a nearby couch as the grownups discussed the events that transpired in the past days. Within those windows were the rooms where the boys were working hard each day, she thought, as she stared at the windows facing the one that she was looking through. I wonder… it must be really hard for them.

“Hiromi?”

So deep was she in her thoughts that she didn't notice that Beckett was already in front of her.

“Oh! I'm sorry!” said Hiromi, as she stood up. “What is it?”

“The Major is asking you if you want to see the boys now.”

“Oh? Can I?”

“They're down at the hangar, trying on their Kobu uniforms.” Said the Major. “Their Kobus are due to arrive to day.

“You mean like those outfits that the girls wear in their robots?”

“Something like that.”